Following our popular Christmas carol piano tutorials we’re now taking a look at some other classic pieces of music that will sound great on the piano or keyboard, regardless of your skill level.

So, dive in and learn how to play Amazing Grace.

Amazing Grace: Introduction

Amazing Grace is an iconic hymn that nearly everyone knows. It’s not particularly difficult to play, and the wonderful thing is that it’s open to a lot of interpretation and creativity once you get the basic chord structure right.

We’ll look at:

the main melody line

a version with a very simple bass line

the basic chord structure (and a variation)

a few styles to whet your appetite at the creative possibilities

Amazing Grace: Main Melody

All of our examples are played in the key of F major [find out about major and minor chords]. This means one flat — B flat — to watch out for.

You might not feel as comfortable playing in F major as you do in, say, G major or C major. However, I’ve chosen this key as it makes the pitch for singing quite reasonable.

If you end up playing with other musicians, you could be asked to play in another key. If so, it’s definitely worth learning not just the actual chords and notes in this piece, but how they relate to one another. That way, it’s not such a wrench if having to transpose up and down a key or two.

Amazing Grace: Right Hand Chords

Playing chords instead of melody (or possibly with other fill-in notes) is useful if you are singing or accompanying the melody, because it is less common to play a melody line that one or more vocalists are singing.

I’ve used fairly simple chords, and also ones that don’t require a great deal of movement in the right hand. It’s worth noting that this version includes a G major chord in first inversion (bar 7). This means a B natural note.